TV News LIES

Foreign aid spending is back in the U.S. government's budget, after a year in which the Trump administration cut billions of dollars to global health and humanitarian assistance.

On Tuesday evening, President Trump signed the spending bill that would fund much of the government through September 30.

In that legislation, Congress has allocated $50 billion for foreign aid in 2026 — a 16% cut from 2025. Still, it's a lot more money than the administration had signaled it wants to spend on foreign aid in its proposed budget.

The foreign aid package includes funding for a variety of issues, such as military aid to Egypt, Israel and Taiwan. However, it also includes money for initiatives aimed at supporting democracy, scholarship programs, U.S. embassy operations and health and humanitarian programs around the world.

Susan Collins, R-Maine, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement that the bill advances the priorities of the American people. "This fiscally responsible package would realign U.S. foreign assistance and make America safer and stronger on the world stage."

Aid groups also welcomed the package, even as they noted the reduction in funding for humanitarian assistance compared to previous years.

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Attorneys for the Trump administration are aiming to deport Liam Conejo Ramos, the five-year-old boy whose photograph in a bunny hat in snowy Minneapolis circulated globally after his detention last month by federal officials during the aggressive anti-immigration crackdown there.

The child, Liam, returned home to Minnesota earlier this week after being taken into custody alongside his father last month and transferred to a notorious family detention facility in Texas.

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Friday it is seeking a deportation order for the Ecuadorian boy.But the department has denied that it is seeking to expedite his and his father’s removal from the US after a lawyer for the family characterized the government’s action as such to the New York Times.

The lawyer, Danielle Molliver, described the move to the newspaper as “extraordinary” and possibly “retaliatory”.

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A federal judge has reversed a freeze put on funds by Donald Trump for $16bn in enhanced rail links connecting New York and New Jersey amid reports that the US president wants major travel landmarks named after him in return for continued investment.

The Gateway Project will build a new commuter rail tunnel between Manhattan and New Jersey under the Hudson River on the western side of New York City and repair a century-old tunnel used by more than 200,000 travelers and 425 trains daily.

The existing River tunnel was heavily damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and needs frequent emergency repairs that disrupt travel on the nation’s most heavily used passenger rail line.

The US district judge Jeannette Vargas in New York on Friday handed down the temporary ruling hours after New York and New Jersey authorities said construction would halt for lack of funding.

Vargas said the states were likely to succeed on their claims that a Trump administration directive freezing the funds was arbitrary and ran afoul of legal procedures for making policy changes.

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Former President Bill Clinton blasted Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) on Friday as he and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepare to sit for depositions in the House Oversight Committee’s investigation of disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

After Republicans and Democrats on the Committee threatened the Clintons with contempt if they ignored subpoenas, the couple agreed to testify under oath about their relationship with Epstein on Feb. 26 and 27.

The depositions are scheduled to be in-person, private and both videotaped and transcribed ― the same format the committee used when it heard from former special counsel Jack Smith during a closed-door hearing in December.

Hillary Clinton lashed out at Comer on Thursday, saying on social media, “If you want this fight ... let’s have it―in public.”

The former president offered his own blistering multi-part Comer critique on Friday, calling the investigation of the couple’s Epstein connections “pure politics” that only serve “partisan interests.”

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Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard is coming under scrutiny from lawmakers in both parties for delays in transmitting a whistleblower complaint and her involvement in two different seizures of voting records.

On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Gabbard’s office had failed to relay a whistleblower report made last May accusing her of wrongdoing to Congress.

Two days later, Gabbard’s office confirmed its involvement in the seizure of voting machines in Puerto Rico, news that came after the DNI was spotted during the execution of a search warrant in Fulton County, Ga.

Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been highly critical of Gabbard on both fronts, hammering her for failing to swiftly turn over the whistleblower report while calling her involvement in voting a threat to the coming elections.

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For years, Maher Tarabishi kept his disabled son alive.

A chronic muscular disease diagnosed when he was a child had confined Wael Tarabishi to his bed and forced him to depend on a feeding tube for survival. His father became his primary caregiver, doing whatever he needed, whenever he needed it.

The disease left Wael unable to eat, drink or walk, so the feeding tube was his lifeline. When it became clogged or dirty, Maher would clean it and could change it in an emergency. When Wael needed medication, Maher crushed the pills up finely, added a little water, and injected them into the feeding tube with a syringe. Several times a day, Maher used a suction device to remove saliva and mucus from Wael’s mouth to keep him from choking.

But when the end finally came, Maher was not at his son’s side. He was in a detention center more than three hours from the family’s home in Arlington, Texas, the same facility where he has been held since he was arrested during a routine check-in with federal immigration officials last October.

His family had pleaded for the government to release him on humanitarian grounds so he could continue his son’s care, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement denied the request. When Wael died on Jan. 23, federal officials barred Tarabishi from performing a final paternal act for his son: They refused to let him go to the funeral.

“ICE is responsible for the death of Wael,” said his sister-in-law, Shahd Arnaout, who watched his health rapidly deteriorate in his father’s absence.

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Washington Post CEO and publisher Will Lewis has tendered his resignation, according to reports.

Matt Viser, the Post's White House bureau chief, shared a screenshot of the email that newsroom staffed received in a Saturday, Feb. 7 X post.

"All - After two years of transformation at The Washinton Post, now is the right time for me to step aside," Lewis said. "I want to thank Jeff Bezos for his support and leadership throughout my tenure as CEO and Publisher. The institution could not have a better owner."

The announcement comes days after sweeping layoffs hit the Washington, D.C. based newsroom, causing hundreds of job cuts and the shuttering of multiple desks.

Jeff D'Onofrio, chief financial officer of the newspaper owned by Jeff Bezos, will serve as acting publisher and CEO, the Post said, according to Reuters.

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Israeli forces have detained two journalists, two foreign solidarity activists and a Palestinian anti-settlement activist in the southern occupied West Bank city of Hebron while they were documenting attacks carried out by illegal Israeli settlers, according to local sources.

Osama Makhamera, a Palestinian activist involved in resisting settlement expansion, told Anadolu on Friday that Israeli forces stormed the Rujum al-Aala area after illegal settlers attacked residents of the Masafer Yatta region, south of Hebron.

He said the forces detained two journalists working with a foreign media outlet, along with two foreign activists and Rateb al-Jbour, coordinator of the popular and national committees opposing illegal Israeli settlement activity in southern Hebron, as they were documenting the settler assault.

Makhamera added that the detainees were taken to a nearby Israeli settlement in the area. Al-Jbour was later released, while the fate of the journalists and foreign activists remains unknown.

He said the Rujum al-Aala community has faced repeated attacks by illegal settlers, with incidents escalating in recent days.

The assaults have left residents wounded, including women and children, caused extensive damage to homes and property, destroyed crops, and prevented residents from accessing their farmland and grazing areas.

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